With some planning, creativity and ingenuity, you can make an altar to take with you, carry it in your pocket, backpack, luggage, carry on bag, or purse. The size will depend on the container you can find to hold everything in. From there just keep thinking small.
I would like a special container, a small metal box I think. I could see the metal box as my element for Fire. So that serves a double duty without adding a thing inside the box.
What do you really need for your altar?
Make a list and whittle it down. Literally and figuratively. Decide what you need and what you can do without, for a day or two, or when you’re not at home. What can you scale down, bring less of, or find a smaller alternative?
For me, I would always have to bring at least one small rock, pebble. The Earth element is easy that way.
A sealed container can hold a little water. Another can hold air, nothing but air. If your water leaks, test it before packing it up, you could keep a second empty container to fill with a little water later. Air and water are not hard to find, even on the road.
Wrap everything in a soft cloth, which can double as an altar cloth, to keep it from jiggling, making noise, or breaking when they are in your pocket.
Get a little creative for other tools you want to have in your little box. Add a leftover (or new) birthday cake candle, or four. Use a penny as a weight, melt a dab of wax from your candle to stick it to the penny so they are less likely to tip over. You may already have a small pentacle, a necklace, for instance. Substitute for tools you can’t fit in the box. Get more than one use out of fast food containers, for example.
Pick up things along your journey: seashells, flowers, a stone, a button, a pack of matches, a postcard or other souvenir. These can be great additions to a mobile altar. They can be temporary and are no problem to recycle.
Don’t forget some salt, or whatever you choose, when you close circles, and end rituals.
Go through and use your mobile kit once at home so you don’t realize you missed something once you are using it somewhere else.
I found kits online, but as you can see from these, it really isn’t a stretch to make your own. Something personal will have much more personality and meaning for you. Buying one made by someone else just isn’t as much fun. Think of it as a challenge, see how miniature you can go.
A Pocket Travel Altar – from Etsy shop – The Whimsical Pixie11
Another, called a Witch Kit Box – Etsy shop – The Ridgeville Witch